HeatersMatterhorn

On their fourth album, Matterhorn, Michigan-based psych-rockers, Heaters have aimed high. They want to trump previous creative successes such as Holy Water Pool and Baptistina with their dynamic and precisely crafted sound. Since the aforementioned Baptistina, Heaters are re-energised by a line-up reshuffle with founding member Andrew Tamlyn leaving to form Fyrrh.

REVIEWS

As good as their word, Heaters are like steam rising from a jet pool, their psychedelia sweetly toned and jangle-minded in an effort to really take you, as a companion, on their trip. It’s a lovely listen: the way “Thanksgiving I” rolls in, with leisurely, half-finished riffs, you’d think they’d just been cycling through this album in an infinite loop -- the record slowly becomes more traditionally psych rock, but never feels any less cosy.

Unlike their record for Fuzz Club, where things switched in direction a fair bit more, this record is precise in its dedication to chill: the forward momentum afforded by literally any psych rock rhythm section is alive and well on ‘Matterhorn’, but the songs take their time, trading jangle and wah in a waltz of guitar effects so lovely you get lost in time listening to it; listening to this band jam is like staring into a massive aquarium tank.

With vox fading in and out of peripheral vision, guitars trembling on the borderlines of clarity and a rhythm section that pushes, plough-like, through the joyous shambles, this might be the perfect record for a psychlord’s winter months. It brings cosmos to your front room. Stick around for "Kingsday", please.